Local News

Peetz on track with sewer audit

Wright says he's 'comfortable' with state's requirements

By Jeff Rice

Journal-Advocate staff writer

Posted:
08/12/2016 07:03:33 AM MDT

Peetz probably will get a stern talking-to by the State of Colorado, but there won't be any penalties. That's the assessment after the state's Department of Public Health and Environment audited the town's wastewater system records on Wednesday.

Bill Wright, owner of Wrico Environmental Consulting, LLC, which operates the sewer system for Peetz, said the auditor, Christine Lukasik, was satisfied with what she found but there is still more to do.

"She understood the situation, and what we've done is acceptable for the time being," Wright said. "We'll probably get a strongly-worded letter, but (the auditor) said not to worry about it. I feel comfortable with what they requested. Starting now and going forward, we know what we need to do."

Wright had been concerned about the audit and told the Peetz Town Board Monday night that he had kept the best records he could without the required form. That form is called a Discharge Monitoring Report (DMR) and Wright said he'd been told the state didn't need to supply DMR forms to several small towns, including Peetz.

An exchange of phones calls and a conference call Thursday with managers in the Field Services Division of DPHE reveals that that's true — sort of.

The reason Peetz can't get DMRs, according to Greg Naugle, who manages the Field Services Division, is because its wastewater treatment system's permit is an old one that has been "administratively extended" for a number of years. Normally, Naugle said, permits are renewed every five years. For reasons no one can quite ascertain, Peetz' permit was not renewed when it was supposed to be, and so it has been administratively extended year-to-year.

Advertisement

"There are a lot of factors that might explain why that might happen," Naugle said. "There are a number of other communities that are in the same situation."

Meanwhile, because Peetz' permit is administratively extended, there's no paperwork mechanism that allows the DPHE to record DMRs that Peetz might submit. When pressed on why the forms can't just be filled out and sent in, Kelly Jacques, supervisor of field inspectors and Christine Lukasik's boss, simply said, "It just doesn't work that way."

The focus now, Naugle said, is on getting Peetz' data collection up to snuff so a new permit can be issued.

"Part of the reason we were out there (in Peetz) is to let people know the permit is coming," he said. "We should have that process completed in the next year to year-and-a-half."

Jacques said she talked with Wright on Thursday and explained the process to him.

"He is in the process of collecting that data for us, and I think he's comfortable with that process." she said.

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.